Clara's Thai Breakfast (Gluten Free Casein Free)

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love eggs, I love pancakes, I love bacon, I love bagels...what's not to love?

A few months ago my friend Clara shared with me one of her favorite breakfast dishes. Her mother is Thai and Clara grew up eating wonderful meals such as Laab, Masaman, and Panang. Meals that would be considered quite exotic in my neck of the woods!

One such meal is a basic breakfast of fried eggs over steamed jasmine rice with fish sauce.

Yes, fish sauce. I am a new convert to fish sauce. I have to admit fish sauce sounded very unappetizing to me at first, but after trying Clara's breakfast, I realized how delicious it was and that I had eaten meals with similar flavors such as the anchovy paste in homemade Caesar salad.

To make Clara's breakfast, I fry 2 eggs over easy, so the yolk is warm and runny, but the whites are very crunchy and crispy. Serve the eggs over steamed jasmine rice and sprinkle on a few drops of fish sauce over the meal. Don't over-do the fish sauce unless you REALLY like fish sauce! It can be "too" fishy if you use too much, but just a few dashes and you will love it!! I also sprinkle on a few black sesame seeds for color and crunch.

Clara also has an incredibly detailed post on her personal version of a Thai Breakfast vs. an Australian breakfast. I hope you'll visit her site today and try this wonderful, simple, naturally gluten free breakfast!

A Simple Salad and Lessons on Eating...

As you know, I just finished Meghan's fantastic Green Smoothie Cleanse program. I have learned so many things in the past 6 days. For instance at one point today I thought I was really hungry, I just wanted to munch on something... instead of instantly grabbing for a snack, as I normally would... I stopped and thought about why I was hungry.

Was I truly hungry? Was I thirsty instead? Was I bored?

I realized I had not had very much to drink so I decided to have a glass of water. After the water I wasn't hungry anymore. This revelation is a huge accomplishment for me.

Meghan is truly onto something when she talks about conscious eating. This one concept alone could change my life. I've always been a conscious buyer, being very aware of needs and wants... yet for some reason up until now I have never applied this towards how I eat. I know that you shouldn't eat when you are stressed, bored, or thirsty... and as simple as this is, I never truly understood how to put this into practice.

I love food. I always will... I can't deny that fact or try to change it. But I can change my relationship with food. How I eat, what I eat, how much I eat, and when I choose to eat. And for that Meghan, I will always be in your debt. I cannot thank you enough for your wisdom and encouragement! You have helped me to get on the right steps towards positive, life long healthy weight goals.

I am gradually adding whole foods back into my diet. Today I had a salad for lunch. It was the first time I had eaten foods in their whole form in 3 days. It amazed me how quickly a simple salad of all vegetables with an olive oil and vinegar dressing could fill me up! And it was so satisfying.




For dinner, I decided to make a large salad with some of my produce from the past three days. I had a salad of mixed greens with the following on top:

- 1 shredded carrot
- 1/2 an avocado
- 1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
- 1/2 an apple
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- 1/2 of a medium zucchini, julienned
- 1/4 of an orange, juice squeezed over the salad
- drizzle of olive oil
- drizzle of sesame oil
- drizzle of red wine vinegar
- sprinkling of black sesame seeds

This was a delicious, fast, and filling salad! It was beautiful presentation, and it was a dinner I felt great about eating. How often do you leave the dinner table with a true sense of healthy wellbeing? Tonight I felt that way. It made me smile!

For dessert? Yes I wanted something crunchy, or sweet... but decided on a simple fruit smoothie with a banana, homemade almond milk, and a few strawberries! It was simple and delicious and instantly curbed my sugar craving!! I can do this... I know I can!

Here's to your good health!

Green Smoothie Cleanse -- Day 5

Day 5 -- Green Smoothie Cleanse, Final Post

Dear Mr. Beet,
I tried. I tried you in my smoothie this evening and I'm sorry... I just can't eat you raw. I really tried and I love still you love cooked, but raw just won't cut it! But don't worry, we used your smoothie to give a nutritious boost to our newly planted azaleas, I'm sure they will reap from your nutritious benefits!!

Very Sincerely,
Carrie @ GingerLemonGirl.com

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It is the last official day of the Green Smoothie Cleanse! This is my last post in the series and I did it!! I made it through 3 entire days of all green smoothies! I feel healthier and I'm really glad I did this for my body... but I'd also really like something to eat.. something crunchy! ;-)

Three days was a great length of time for this cleanse! It's just enough time to allow yourself to stop bad habits and learn new healthy ones. Tomorrow I will have raw foods such as a green leaf salad with carrots, mushrooms, sunflower seeds, cucumber, and oil and vinegar for dressing. Thursday I'll add cooked vegetables back into the menu, and Friday I'll reintroduce healthy lean meats and whole gluten free grains in very small portions.

Today I wanted to make an all veggie V8 type smoothie for dinner, minus the tomatoes. And well, as you read above, it didn't really work out. In the colorful smoothie, I used a small beet with the greens, 2 shredded carrots, red cabbage, celery, spinach, kale, and parsley. I was a brave Ginger Lemon Girl and tried to chug it down... but soon gave up. I'm sorry. I just didn't like it. No offense Mr. Beet.

So instead of a V8 smoothie, I opted for something a bit sweeter. What can I say... sweets are indeed my weakness, but at least this would be a healthy, natural sweet treat!

I decided to use shredded carrots, an apple, a handful of peaches, and of course greens.

At the last minute I tossed in some cinnamon and some fresh vanilla bean and voila... a carrot cake smoothie! It's very tasty and just slightly sweet! The cinnamon adds a lovely hint of natural sweetness and I love the fresh vanilla!

Enjoy!



Carrot Cake Smoothie

2 carrots, shredded
1 apple, cored
1/2 cup frozen peaches
2 tablespoons soaked almonds
1 cup spinach
1 cup kale
1 cup collards
2 tablespoons gogi berries
1/4 cup coconut (I used whole pieces of fresh coconut)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 of a vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped from pod into blender
2 cups water
1 cup ice

Add all to blender and pulse until very smooth. Add more water if necessary. Serve immediately!

Many thanks to Meghan Telpner for her constant support, positive encouragement, and her wonderful green smoothie cleanse program and information. Please visit her site for excellent resources on whole foods nutrition and healthy living!

Green Smoothie Cleanse -- Day 4

Day 4 of the Spring Green Smoothie Challenge!

I have to say I'm proud of myself for sticking this out! We're halfway done! Tomorrow will be last full day of the cleanse and then I will take 3 days to slowly transition back to eating healthy meals.

This has been a great challenge to me in so many ways! I'm proud of what I have learned during this process and I'm proud of myself for having the discipline to stick with this program. It is 9 days total from the first day of transition to the last. I slowly entered into the program and I will slowly transition back to whole, nourishing, gluten free, dairy free, and soy free foods!




A few things I've observed while doing this program:

- I feel really healthy and I like that feeling!!
- I am learning what it means to be a conscious eater -- a true accomplishment for this girl who will eat when stressed, bored, or ill-at-ease.
- I have learned that I do not "need" a full course meal (especially for every meal) to make my tummy happy.
- I am learning how to recognize when I want a type of food simply because I have fond memories for it, not because it is healthy or good for my body.
- I am starting to enjoy exercising just for the sake of exercising, not necessarily to accomplish a forced goal!
- I feel like smiling more often when my body feels well!
- I have more confidence in myself and what I believe I can do!

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Speaking of conscious eating and comfort foods...

Tonight's smoothie is probably my absolute favorite so far in the program! On the way home I thought about the smoothie I would like to have for dinner. It's amazing the things your body will crave during programs like this ;-) ... do you know what I wanted all day today? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Heavy on the peanut butter, light on the jelly.

How could I make a smoothie that *might* taste similar? My favorite jam is strawberry, so I knew strawberries would go in. And with strawberries... a banana always makes a happy companion! For the "peanut butter" part, I settled on almond butter since we are not eating peanuts during this cleanse to avoid mold.

Here's my smoothie. Compared to other smoothies I have made so far, this one is very filling due to the high protein content of the almond butter. Feel free to adjust the amounts to suit your taste and calorie consumption!

Carrie's Strawberry Almond Protein Smoothie


2 cups collards
3-4 leaves romaine lettuce, stems removed
1 banana
1/2 cup strawberries
3 tablespoons almond butter
1 teaspoon bee pollen
1 cup almond milk
1 cup water
1 cup ice
*swirl of agave nectar -or- pinch stevia to sweeten, if necessary (I didn't need additional sweetness!)

Add all to blender and pulse until smooth. Serve immediately Makes around 1.5 pints depending on how much liquid you add. This is one smoothie I'll definitely be making on a regular basis!


Carrie's Notes:

- I was surprised at how well the collards are blended into this smoothie! The primary flavors are a mixture of strawberry, banana, and almonds, even though there are substantial greens! It was a nice break in the routine of very, very green smoothies!

- I loved added the bee pollen to this smoothie because it reminded me even more of peanut butter and jelly, or honey in this case! It's very healthy and a great source of natural sweetness!

- I bough very very ripe bananas at the grocery store today. I find that overripe bananas are wonderful in smoothies because of the serious natural sweetness! The lady in line behind me asked why in the world I would buy such ripe bananas! I told her that I peeled them, froze them, and added them to smoothies. She was genuinely delighted. She smiled and said, "Wow, I never would have thought to do that. What a smart shopper you are!" It made my day!

Green Smoothie Cleanse -- Day 3

Day 3... which is actually day 1 of the beginning of ALL green smoothies, for all three meals, for three consecutive days. I transitioned into the 3 day green smoothie cleanse by going from one green smoothie meal to today, 3 smoothie meals.

I have to admit yesterday was harder than today. I like to chew and crunch and munch. So the lack of these comfortable motions of my mouth were really missed by yesterday afternoon. Was it hard today? Well, a little, but I kept telling myself, this is only for 3 days. You can do anything for 3 days! Today actually went quite smoothly (pardon the pun) as a matter of fact! ;-)

For the occasion my steadfast old trusty blender died. Yes, it died. Just when I needed it consistently for about 6 days! So while I couldn't buy a Vitamix, I was able to afford a nice Kitchenaid Blender. I am IN LOVE with my new blender! The shakes are VERY smooth, ice crushed perfectly, and it makes me one happy little smoothie maker! I decided to go with a Kitchenaid because I use a KA stand mixer that has lasted over 12 years, and it's still working like it's brand new! I have high hopes for the quality of this blender!

I think I have decided I'm not extremely fond of parsley in a smoothie. My morning breakfast smoothie had parsley and it was quite strong tasting. I still finished it, but decided I would use other greens for the rest of the day!

Tonight's smoothie has a little bit of protein, a few tablespoons of pineapple, and my favorite greens: spinach and kale. It has been very refreshing way to spend Sunday evening! If you try it tell me what you think!


Gentle Evening Smoothie

1/4 cup pineapple
1 Asian pear
handful of grapes
1 tablespoon gogi berries
2 tablespoons soaked almonds
1 1/2 cups spinach
1 1/2 cups kale
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 1/2 cups ice
1 1/2 cups water
* add stevia or agave nectar for additional sweetness

Place all in blender and pulse until smooth. Serve immediately.

Are you making smoothies? Do you enjoy them? What kinds of smoothies or shakes do you make in your blender? Share with me in the comments!

Until tomorrow!